Riptide
by Toony-Tornado
Summary: Striving to be an Oceanic artist, Morgen hates fishing. But when his fisherman of a father forces him to go out at sea and practice hauling fish, a Dolphin getting tangled in their net leads him to a world he only imagined.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, here it is, my first Little Mermaid fanfic.  
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**I'm not expecting too much attention for this, so out of my other stories this might not get updated as much.**

**But, I do hope that you enjoy the first chapter non the less :D**

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><p>"I still don't see why I have to do this." A young boy with unruly black hair and green eyes sighed. His chin resting heavily on his knee and he idly tightened the knots on the fishing net.<p>

"Well, you're 15 now, and it high time you started making regular practice of the family business." James, a large man with a bushy black beard and blue eyes, his father explained.

"How else are ya gonna provide for a family you might have someday?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe I'll find work that I'll actually _enjoy_." Morgen started. "I hate fishing, you _know_ I do!"

"I don't like doing it and I don't like eating it!"

"Oh, Morgen, don't start this _again_." James said in an exasperated tone. "Fishing has been a big part of our family for generations; everything about it is like art to us, from the way tie the net, to how we real in the bounty."

"And if you want to always have a good haul in the end, you have got to start appreciating what's in your blood more than you do right now."

"I mean just look at the way you set down the anchor." He gestured to the large weight that Morgen had carelessly placed upside down after he pulled it up. He was surprised that it hadn't capsized the boat already. "If that's not un-appreciation, I don't know what is."

"Dad, it's a smelly old anchor."

"Oh, stow it and help me drop the net already." James said, giving up on the conversation. Morgen Just gave an irritated sigh, making sure that the ends of the net was secure, he gathered it up in his arms and tossed it overboard.

"'kay, now what?" Morgen asked.

"Now we row, and once we start dragging, we pull it back in." His father explained. "The only hard part to this job is making sure that your net is nice and sturdy, so why don't you keep practicing on the spare until it's time?"

Morgen rolled his eyes, but did as he was told. He was made to tie and patch nets since he was six, he could make a good net in his sleep.

But he hated fishing with a passion.

He father called it art, but the kind of art he was interested in involved a paint brush. It was his dream to capture sea life on a canvass, not capture it in a net.

SPLASH!

Morgen jumped when he felt droplets of sea water dot across his back and he looked behind him. He saw nothing at first, but then the grey body of a dolphin suddenly burst from the water, splashing him with water once again.

"Oh wow, it's a dolphin!" Morgen exclaimed with excitement, getting up on his knees and looking over the boat to get a better look while his net was left forgotten.

He suddenly heard James curse under his breath. "Of all the rotten luck." He stated. "If that things here it'll scare away any passing fish." He turned and started reeling in the net by himself. "Too bad dolphin meat ain't any good, otherwise it'd make for at least ten decent meals by itself."

"She's so beautiful, How could you possibly ever think of eating her?" Morgen asked with distaste as he kept his eyes train on the dolphin as she popped up her head to look at him with curious black eyes.

"It's a fish." James said.

"Actually, she's a mammal, just like we are." Morgen said, sending a glare over his shoulder. "And she has feelings too, just like we do."

He suddenly heard a clicking and he looked back to the dolphin just as she submerged and swam under the boat. Morgen crawled over the other side and peered over the rim of the boat. He could just make out her shape under the blue waters, but noticed that she suddenly stopped mid-swim, looking around as though she could sense something.

And whatever it was, she certainly didn't like it.

Without warning, she flipped around and made a mad dash to the other side of the boat, and Morgen's heart leaped into his throat when he saw that his father hadn't finished pulling up the net.

"Oh wait!" Morgen cried, "you'll swim into the-"

"_WHOA_!" James cried as he was nearly pulled over board.

His father was a rather large man, he towered over Morgen and his body, especially his arms, was big and toned from years of hauling fish. So when he felt something pulling at his most important piece of equipment for his trade, he stood up, planting his feet in the middle of the boat and starting pulling up the net with so much as getting winded.

But it started to get harder for him the closer the dolphin got the surface.

When he finally did managed to get the dolphin up, she was thrashing around so hard, it felt like he was trying to hold steady a whole pack of large dogs as they tried to pull away from him.

"The blasted thing's gonna snap the whole net apart!" His father strained while he tugged on the net harder, making the poor creature squeal in pain as the ropes tightened around her body.

"Dad, _stop_, you're hurting her!" Morgen yelled, pulling a knife out of his pocket.

"Don't you dare, boy!" His father warned when he saw the knife in his hand.

"What's worse, patching it up or repairing the entire thing?" Morgen demanded.

Deciding that his son had a point, he said nothing more against it as Morgen got to his knees and leaned over the edge of the boat and quickly started cutting at the ropes of the net, carefully calculating each strand so that it would cause the least amount of damage possible to both the dolphin and the net.

"Hurry, son," his father grunted, as he still tried to hold up the weight. "Don't know how much longer I can hold 'er!"

"I almost got it!" Morgen yelled, his arms and face were soaked with water from the amount of thrashing the frightened sea mammal was doing, it was a just one cord away from freedom. It was wrapped around her tail, so tightly from all the pulling and struggling, he could see that the underside was died red with her blood.

Morgen figured that she would have a scare around her tail for the rest of her life after this, but he'd think about that later. He had to get her out of this net!

"Just one…more…" _SNAP_!

Once it was cut, the Dolphin gave one last powerful thrash of its strong tail, breaking a chunk out from the side of the boat. Right were Morgen had put the ill placed Anchor.

His father, who had been leaning back at the time, fell over from the unexpected lack of weight, and the boat was rocked.

Morgen had been leaning of the edge, and he cried out when the boat rose up high, and came crashing down and submerge his head and shoulders, making him choke down a mouthful of sea water. He had pressed his knees hard against the side of the boat to keep from going overboard.

The Anchor, however, wasn't as lucky as its heavy bottom tumbled out the hole that was made by the dolphin.

And as Morgen lifted his head out of the water moving his arms through the surface of the water to keep his face up, coughing and trying to take a breath; he never noticed the rapidly descending rope of the heavy weight start to tangle around his right wrist until it was too late.

Morgen didn't have the same strength that his father did, so he had no chance of keeping himself in that boat when the slack finally tightened and pulled him under with a short gasp of surprise.

"Morgen!" James cried as he saw Morgen's legs disappear over the edge of the boat

The elder man instantly hurried over to the rope of the anchor that was still inside the boat. And despite the soreness he felt from holding on to the dolphin, began to reel it in, He frantically waited to feel drag from Morgen's weight, waiting for a sign that he was bringing him back up to the surface. But after a short while, his heart became ice cold with fear when all he brought back up was a severed end of a rope.

"No! Morgen!" James cried, rushing over to the edge of the boat. "_MORGEN_!"

But he could only watch helplessly as he saw the dark outline of his sons body fall further and further beneath the waves.

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><p><strong>I actually have no idea what Dolphin tastes like, and I never will :**

**Also, sorry to disappoint you if you were expecting familiar characters, but I assure that they'll be coming soon:D**

**Let me know what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yush! Chapter 2 is posted and ready to read!**

**Please enjoy!**

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><p>A foul taste in his mouth was what Morgen woke up to when he finally started coming to. He moved his fingers, feeling the soft sands of a beach under his touch.<p>

He relaxed against the ground, he and his father must have gone home early and he fell asleep on the beach, which was a relief because the dream he had was a rather frightening one. But he was safe at home, on land and not drowning at the bottom of the ocean.

But when he opened his eyes, he still felt like he was still inside a dream.

The sky seemed to glisten with a very unusual soft light, almost light it was dancing, and a school of bright colored fish flew over him in graceful waves...

Wait a minute..._fish_?!

Morgen sat up with a gasp, looking around, glimpses of seaweed and coral telling him that he just wasn't on a sandy beach.

He was under water!

Out of habit, he sucked in a breath and clamped his hands over his mouth. He then propelled off the sea floor and frantically swam upward. He had to break the surface before he ran out of air and...and

...and drowned?

He paused, slowly sinking back down from his fall of momentum. He hesitated for a moment, but then slowly let out his breath and inhaled again.  
>He could breathe perfectly.<p>

This was physically impossible, He couldn't understand what was going on. He then moved his left arm through the water to turn and look around and see if he could find his bearings or spot anything that would seem familiar.

But when he saw nothing in that direction, he tried to do the same thing with his right arm, only to immediately give a yelp when pain suddenly shot up and down his whole shoulder and the side of his torso. He briefly wondered why he was hurting so much, but then it all came back.

He freed the dolphin that got caught in the net, and then he was dragged down by the anchor.

Morgen rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, and sure enough dark bruises crisscrossed along his forearm from where the rope had wrapped around it. He must've had some torn muscles because of it as well.

When he felt his feet touch the ocean floor, he looked around again to see if he could spot that anchor. But when he saw no sign of it, he figured that he just somehow got lose from the rope and the current just swept him away.

So this meant that not only was he injured, but he was lost.

"Well this is just great, I have absolutely no idea where I am," Morgen mumbled, pausing as he saw another colorful school of fish swim by. "...or how I can possibly breathe under water."

"I don't know either, I just found you laying here." A voice suddenly said making him gasp. "You were asleep for the longest time."

"Who said that?" Morgen started, looking around to find the owner of the voice. "Where are you?"  
>He gave a yell when a pair of eyes suddenly dropped into his line of vision and he shot away from them, his legs kicking him back until he smacked into the base of a large boulder.<p>

"OW!" he yelped, clutching at the sore spot on the back of his head.

"Oops, sorry about that," came the voice again with a bell like laugh.

He looked up, his eyes widening at the sight before him.

It was a girl, a girl about his age who had long, bright red hair, sparkling blue eyes and a big friendly smile on her fair skinned face.

She also had a large green fish tail in place where her legs should have been.

"I didn't mean to scare you," she continued, "are you okay?"

Morgen didn't answer her at first, he just continued to stare at her until his mind finally registered exactly what she was.

"You're a mermaid..."

She gave him a nod. "Well yes, yes I am."

"_You_ are a _Mermaid_!" Morgen said again, a smile suddenly spreading across his lips. "This is incredible! I always thought that mermaids where just a fairy tale, But…but here you are right in front of me, living, breathing, talking to me..."

"You're_ real_!"

"Well of course, silly, why wouldn't I be?" she asked him, giggling a little at his enthusiasm.

Morgen just let out a laugh of his own, slapping his left hand to his forehead."This is just amazing, if this is a dream I hope I never wake up!"

"Ariel?" a softer voice suddenly asked.

The mermaid, now known as Ariel, looked over her shoulder and waved over at a patch of winding seaweed. "Flounder, everything's fine." She said. "He's friendly, come out and meet him."

A small yellow fish with blue fins poked his head out, trembling a bit as he eye's Morgen nervously. "But Ariel, what about all those stories?" he asked fearfully. "He's one of THEM!"

Ariel sent him a 'don't be such a scaredy cat' look, and motioned for him to come out. His eyes darted between Ariel and Morgen, and after a while he finally did come out.

Well, 'raced' out before hiding behind Ariel.

"I'm one of who?" Morgen asked. "And stories about what?"

"You're a… human, aren't you?" Ariel asked.

"Yes, why?"

"I've never seen a human up close like this before," Ariel said, swimming around him to get a better look with Flounder close behind her. "My father has forbidden anyone to ever come in contact with them." At that, Morgen raised a brow.

"Sooo, if you're forbidden, then what's all this?" he asked, gesturing to the two of them.  
>Ariel sighed, "I just can't believe that all humans are what he says they are," she told them.<p>

"And that leads to my next question, why?" Morgen asked. "What does he say?"

Ariel bit her lip nervously, "well, to put it bluntly, he says that humans are evil, fish eating barbarians," she finally told him.

Morgen whistled, putting a hand on his chest and giving a rather hurt look, "Well, that kinda hurts..." he said.

He suddenly noticed the ashamed look on her face and quickly put up a light hearted smile. "So, uh, did you say your name was Ariel?"

"Oh that's right, we haven't properly introduced ourselves," the mermaid said.

"This is my best friend, Flounder," she started, gesturing to the little yellow fish that hesitantly swam a little ways from behind her, offering him a weak smile.

"And I'm Ariel." She continued with a bright grin, "It's nice to meet you."

"Morgan," He started with a smile, "It's nice to meet your acquaintance, my fair mermaid." He started, Ariel let out another giggle as he gave a playful, dramatic bow.

"You're name is Morgen?" Flounder questioned, talking to him for the first time.

"Yes...Why?"

"It's just a little surprising," Ariel began, "Morgan means 'Born of the Sea', but you're human."

Embarrassed, Morgan gave a short laugh, rubbing the back of his neck, "yeah, well, my mom kinda had a reason for that." He said. "But that's a long story, I won't get into it."

"Is…is it true about what they say about humans?" Flounder suddenly asked. "About…eating, fish?"

Morgan gave him a sad look, he really couldn't lie to him. "Yes Flounder, it's true."

Flounder gulped, and shuddered in disgust and fright. "But hey, you don't have to worry about me being like that, I don't eat fish." Morgan assured, ruffling a hand over his head. "In fact, really don't like eating any kind of meat, just vegetables or anything green."

Hearing that, Flounder finally relaxed, and even gave him a soft smile.

A clicking sound suddenly rang in his ears, and he looked around confused. "I'm not the only one hearing that, right?" He asked.

"Look!" Flounder said, pointing up behind them with a smile.

He followed his fin and saw another dolphin swimming towards their group. She let out a happy cry when she saw Ariel and swam right up to her in greeting.

"This is Nelly, she's one of the local dolphin's that lives near these parts." Ariel explained, rubbing the dolphins head. "She's very friendly, but you should probably keep your distance, most fish and sea mammals fear humans and they are very wary of them."

Morgen gave a nod. "It's fine, I completely understand why."

When the dolphin heard his voice, her eyes widened in surprise and she turned around to see him. And after a few moment, she gave another excited cry and quickly swam into his arms, nuzzling his face with her nose and cheeks.

Morgen couldn't help but cry out from the unexpected show of affection. "Whoa! What's going on?!"

"She..._likes_ you," Ariel stated in surprise.

"Why?" Morgan asked in bewilderment as Nelly backed up and started swimming around him. "I thought you said most sea creatures feared humans."

"They do," Ariel said, just as confused as he was.

Then, something off color from the usual grey on her skin at the base of her tail caught Morgens' eye, and he noticed a red ring around her tail; it looked like some sort of bad rope burn.

Gasping in realization, he looked into Nelly's eyes. "You're the dolphin that got caught in my dad's fishing net!" he exclaimed.

At that, Nelly nodded her head enthusiastically, clicking at him happily.

"Net?" Ariel asked.

"I thought you didn't eat fish," Flounder reminded in a worried voice.

"I don't, I don't even like fishing." Morgen insisted as Nelly continued to cuddle against him. "But my dad finds that highly unacceptable and forced me to go out with him this morning to practice it. And by the time we finally put the net in the water, that was when Nelly showed up."

"We were about to pull it back up so she wouldn't get caught, but then something spooked her and made her swim right into it."

"So I cut her out of it with a knife I had on me." Morgen continued. "After that I was dragged under by an anchor, and then I woke up and met you guys…somehow"

He slowly looked upwards towards the surface, a distant look on his face.

"I should be dead right now..."

"We'll figure that out later, you're here and that's what matters." Ariel suddenly said, breaking him out of his musings as she wrapped her arms around his right one. "Why don't you let us show you around?"

Morgen inwardly gasped when she started to move. "Wait! Wait! That's my-GAH!"

Ariel instantly let him go when he gave a howl of pain, looking at him with concern when he clutched at his arm. "I'm so sorry, I didn't think I was pulled you that hard,"

"Don't worry, it wasn't you," Morgen quickly said, slowly easing his grip on his soar appendage as the pain ebbed away. "Like I said, I was dragged down by an anchor; I must've hurt myself more than I thought."

"But I probably won't be able to use my arm properly for at least a day or two."

"I can dress it back home," Ariel told him, "We have a special salve that will make it feel better in no time."

"You'd do that for me?" Morgen asked, feeling a bit surprised at her generous offer. "But you hardly know me."

Ariel looked over at Nelly, the two of them sharing a smile before the mermaid met his eyes.

"I know that anyone willing to help others no matter who they are must be good." Ariel said. "That's all I need."

"Maybe we can use the time during your recovery to become better friends."

Again, Morgen felt surprised. Did that mean she actually... already thought of him as a friend? They hadn't even talk to each other for more than ten minutes.

He didn't really know what to think about Ariel, he had never met anyone that seemed as friendly as she was, and nowhere near as bubbly. But, despite the fact that he wasn't used to it, he still had to smile. "Sure," he said softly, giving her a large grin afterwards. "If you don't mind having a land lover as a friend, that is."

Ariel gave a small laugh then she swam ahead a little ways. "Well what are we waiting for?" she asked. "Let's get you back home."

"I'll try to follow you, but it'll be kind tough to keep with a hurt arm and no tail fin." Morgen said looking down at his feet. He still had his boots on, but he just kicked them off. He'd be able to go a little faster if he didn't have those heavy things on.

"I think we can do something about that," Ariel said looking over o Nelly. "Would you mind helping Morgen get around, Nelly?" Ariel suddenly asked.

Nelly clicked at her and then moved herself under Morgen's good arm, urging him to grab hold of her dorsal fin.

"Are you sure?" Morgen asked.

The dolphin persisted by nudging against him until he finally complied, wrapping his left arm securely around her fin and lacing his finger together so he had a good grip.  
>Once Nelly was sure he was ready, she gave a powerful flick of her tail and began following Ariel and Flounder.<p>

"So, where is your home anyway?" Morgen asked, making Ariel look over to him with a large,excited smile.

"Atlantica."

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><p><strong>Woooo! Ariel and Flounder enter the story!<strong>

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter guys, let me know what you think:D**


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